


Marshmallow World

by sakuuya



Category: Battle for London in the Air
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 23:51:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9096052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakuuya/pseuds/sakuuya
Summary: Dr. Suttler has to bring his corgi, Mallow, to the infirmary with him. How difficult can it be to keep one little dog hidden for a day?





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [closetcellist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/closetcellist/gifts).



> Christmas is 12 days long, so technically this is not late!

Dr. Suttler was still unsure that he’d made the right choice. Alcibiades was being more of a terror than usual while his broken wing healed, and when Dr. Suttler had finally made it home yesterday, the parrot had had poor Mallow shivering and whining in a corner. 

But although Dr. Suttler was loathe to let his precious girl endure Alcibiades’ torments, bringing Mallow along to the infirmary was only narrowly, if at all, a better plan. Dr. Suttler didn’t know whether Dr. Jhandir was a dog person—though the man was so perfectly horrid in every other way that Dr. Suttler thought it unlikely he possessed even this solitary virtue—but even if he appreciated dogs in the abstract, he was unlikely to want one in his infirmary, particularly if that dog happened to belong to Dr. Suttler.

“You stay on your best behavior, all right?” he said, ostensibly to Mallow as she trotted along beside him, but really to himself, to try to steady his nerves. The corgi gave a happy bark in response. “Of course you will. You’re a good dog.”

Once they made it to the infirmary, Dr. Suttler spent some time creeping past the windows of Dr. Jhandir’s office to ensure that it was empty. Once he was satisfied, he scooped Mallow up, gave her a quick kiss on the head, and headed in. Dr. Suttler’s reconnaissance had been accurate, but incomplete: The office was empty, but he barely had time to breath a sigh of relief before the door to Dr. Jhandir’s flat opened.

Dr. Suttler didn’t bother to check who was coming downstairs—even if it wasn’t Dr. Jhandir himself, he couldn’t allow anyone else to see Mallow, lest they inform on him. Thinking fast, he practically dove through the door that connected the office to Caroline Marcel’s lab, praying that the girl wasn’t in.

The good Lord wasn’t on Dr. Suttler’s side, it seemed, because Caroline was indeed there, and she looked up from her workbench as Dr. Suttler quickly shut the door behind him.

“Good morning Dr. Suttler,” she said, almost managing to hide her surprise before she registered Mallow’s presence. “Oh, what an adorable dog! Where did you find him?”

“She’s mine,” Dr. Suttler admitted. “I had to bring her in today unexpectedly.”

Dr. Suttler’s heart sank as Caroline went straight to the question he had been dreading: “Does Dr. Jhandir know?” Dr. Suttler could _feel_ his face fall, so Caroline must have known the answer even before he replied. 

“No, he doesn’t. Is there any way I could convince you not to tell him? Mallow is completely harmless, I promise, but I’m sure he wouldn’t see it that way.”

“What a precious name! Hi, Mallow.” Caroline came out from behind the workbench and gave Mallow a pat. Dr. Suttler could feel Mallow’s tail thumping happily against his side as the dog tried to wag it. Turning her attention up to Dr. Suttler, Caroline added, “Is she housebroken?”

“Of course,” Dr. Suttler said, taken off guard by the conversational shift but determined to stand up for his dog. “She’s perfectly well-behaved, I assure you. If I hadn’t been forced to come in here to try to keep her a secret, you would never have known she was in the infirmary today.”

Caroline glanced over her shoulder at the intense clutter of her workbench (and, indeed, the room itself, now that Dr. Suttler got a better look at the place), then nodded, apparently to herself.

“If you’d like, I can keep her here for a while,” Caroline said at last, scratching Mallow behind the ears. No one but me comes in here, really, and as long as she behaves, I’d appreciate the company, honestly. You can set her down on the bed over there.”

The “bed” was the same kind of cot that lined the walls of the makeshift recovery room in the basement, and it was completely free of the mess that covered the laboratory’s other surfaces, which must have meant it saw regular use. That, combined with Caroline’s offhand comment about her loneliness, nearly broke Dr. Suttler’s heart, but it would be terribly impolite to pry into her life after she had offered to do him such a big favor.

So he set Mallow down on the sad little bed. She immediately rolled onto her back, and Dr. Suttler leaned down to scratch her belly. “Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me, really,” he told Caroline, and then, turning back to Mallow, added, “don’t bother Caroline too much, all right?” 

“I’m sure she’ll be just fine,” Caroline said with a smile, taking over belly-scratching duties. “I’ll find you if I need you to take her back.”

“Thank you,” Dr. Suttler repeated. “I need to go—Dr. Jhandir gets upset if I’m the slightest bit late—oh, here,” he handed her a bag of dog bread from his pocket. “She’s already eaten, but you can give her a biscuit if she’s particularly good. Thank you.”

When Dr. Suttler re-entered the main office, Dr. Jhandir was there taking inventory. He glanced up, his expression sharpening as he saw who had come through the door.

“What were you doing in Miss Marcel’s office?” he demanded, suspicious.

“I was just saying good morning,” Dr. Suttler said, trying to sound as innocent as possible despite the frantic pounding of his heart. “I just want to make the best of my time here.”

Dr. Jhandir’s eyes narrowed as he searched Dr. Suttler’s expression, but he let the matter drop: “Well, you can make up for being late by finishing the inventory here. I shouldn’t have to do it when it’s so much more suited to your talents.” He pushed his pen and pad of paper into Dr. Suttler’s hands. From the length of the list, it looked as though Dr. Jhandir was perhaps halfway finished—Dr. Suttler must’ve gotten in while the other man was out having a smoke, because there was no way Dr. Jhandir had managed to do all this while Dr. Suttler had been with Caroline—and unfortunately, not a word of it was in English.

Dr. Suttler’s dismay must have shown on his face, because Dr. Jhandir smiled that smug, self-satisfied smile that Dr. Suttler had quickly grown to loathe.

“Very good. Come see me when you’re done; there’s plenty more needs doing.” As soon as he finished speaking, Dr. Jhandir turned on his heel and headed back upstairs, not waiting for Dr. Suttler’s response.

Dr. Suttler might have dawdled a bit in taking inventory, but he wasn’t looking forward to speaking with Dr. Jhandir again, especially today, and it wasn’t as though he was delaying anything vital—no doubt Dr. Jhandir would just want him to do more busywork that could easily have been performed by someone without a medical degree.

But he had to finish eventually, and he was just about to go upstairs with the completed inventory when Caroline popped her head out of her workshop.

“Oh, Dr. Suttler, good,” she said. “Sorry to bother you so soon, but I need to visit Jim—um, the apothecary, so you’ll have to take Mallow back. She behaved perfectly,” Caroline quickly added, “but I would still prefer she not be in the laboratory unsupervised.”

“Of course,” Dr. Suttler said, though he’d secretly hoped she would be able to watch Mallow longer—all day, really. “I’m grateful that you were able to keep her even this long.”

Caroline smiled. “It was no trouble, really. Come, Mallow!” She opened the door enough for the corgi to slip out. Mallow barked excitedly when she saw Dr. Suttler, and he knelt down to pet her, hoping that it would calm her down.

“Shh. I’m happy to see you too, but we need to keep quiet.” Looking up at Caroline, he added, “I hope you have a successful outing. Thank you again.”

“You’re welcome. Good luck to you, as well. Bye, Mallow.” Caroline gave the dog a scratch behind the ears on her way out the door. 

Dr. Suttler picked his dog back up, something that, luckily, she minded not at all, as it gave her a much better vantage from which to lick his face. He carried her around back to the basement door, as the trapdoor would have been difficult to manage while she was with him. Unless anyone had been admitted overnight, there were only two people staying in the recovery room, which gave him a decent shot at getting Mallow through unnoticed.

One of the patients was asleep in the cot next to the door, but she didn’t stir as Dr. Suttler tiptoed in, concealing Mallow within his jacket as much as possible. The other was nowhere to be seen, but the new incandescent lights were off, so presumably he was resting as well. Dr. Suttler made his careful way to the linen cupboard under one of the staircases and rearranged the sheets there to make a little nest for Mallow.

“There you are,” he said as he set her on the shelf. “I know it’s not very big, but I need you to stay here while I go talk to that mean old Dr. Jhandir. Can you do that? I’ll bring you some water.”

Mallow had already curled up among the sheets, but she still fixed Dr. Suttler with big sad eyes. He gave her a reassuring pat.

“I know, but it won’t be for very long. And when I come back, I’ll bring you some water.” He closed the door and waited for a moment in the dark, but Mallow was apparently content, because she didn’t make a sound.

As Dr. Suttler had predicted, Dr. Jhandir was dissatisfied with the speed at which he had completed the inventory, but nonetheless had a whole host of other menial tasks to assign to him. Dr. Suttler accepted the chores with what was, under the circumstances, very good grace, and concentrated on trying not to look too impatient, though his thoughts were almost entirely with Mallow.

Once Dr. Jhandir had finished haranguing him, Dr. Suttler put some water in a bowl—one of the communal ones from the safehouse, because he was sure that Dr. Jhandir would notice if one of his personal bowls vanished, and Dr. Suttler couldn’t risk any added suspicion at the moment—and went back to the basement.

He was immediately on his guard when he came down through the trapdoor in Dr. Jhandir’s office, because the basement lights had been turned on, though he could see from here that two of the cots were still occupied. His suspicions didn’t make him any more aware, though, because when he turned to go to the cupboard, he ran right into Lord Thaddeus Beck. The collision caused Dr. Suttler to slop water onto himself, but that didn’t matter compared to the fact that Lord Beck was holding Mallow.

“What are you doing with Mallow?” Dr. Suttler hissed, scanning the room again now that he knew his dog was in the open.

“She was in the linen cupboard,” Beck said, apparently unperturbed by the lack of greeting. “Anil wants me to change all the bedsheets down here, which is just a terrible waste of my talents. Honestly, I—”

“Thaddeus,” Dr. Suttler said in a flat voice. His nerves were already at their breaking point, and he knew that Lord Beck could complain for _hours_ once he really got worked up. “What about Mallow?”

“Is she yours? I didn’t know you had such excellent taste. She’s a very fine specimen. There you go, girl.” Lord Beck set Mallow down; she immediately began running figure eights around the two men’s legs. 

“Yes she is. I had to bring her along today, and I’m trying to keep Dr. Jhandir from finding her out. Please don’t tell him she’s here. _Please_.”

Lord Beck paused for a moment (an insufferably long and over-dramatic one, in Dr. Suttler’s opinion), looking back and forth between Dr. Suttler and Mallow before he opened his mouth to respond. Whatever he was about to say, however, was put on hold by the sound of a trapdoor opening.

“Suttler? Are you down there?” Dr. Jhandir called from his office. Although he—and, more importantly, Mallow—weren’t visible from the trapdoor, Dr. Suttler still seized up like he’d been caught red-handed. The remaining water in the bowl he was holding trembled as though it was as nervous as he was.

“ _Please_ ,” he hissed to Lord Beck, hoping that Dr. Jhandir couldn’t hear.

“All right,” Lord Beck whispered back, to Dr. Suttler’s eternal relief. “I’ll keep mum, on the condition that you do the linens down here for me.”

“Yes, fine, anything,” Dr. Suttler agreed hurriedly. Then in a louder voice, he said, “Yes, sir. I’ll be up in a moment.”

“Oh, no need. I just wanted to make sure you hadn’t run off. You still have plenty of work to do, you know.” The trapdoor closed again, leaving Dr. Suttler feeling drained and furious.

“And you agreed to change all the bedsheets,” Lord Beck reminded him, unhelpfully.

“Y-yes, of course. Thank you for keeping Mallow a secret, Thaddeus.”

Lord Beck laid a hand on his arm, and Dr. Suttler wasn’t sure whether to lean into the touch or pull away. Before he could decide, Lord Beck broke the contact and fixed Dr. Suttler with a pitying look instead.

“Good luck, then, Irving,” he said. “I’m afraid you’ll sorely need it.”

That was more dramatic a valediction than Dr. Suttler felt the situation warranted, but he bit back his response and forced himself to smile and nod. He brought Mallow back to the linen closet as Lord Beck made his way back upstairs and bedded her down again so he could get on with doing Lord Beck’s work.

By the time he’d finished changing all the sheets (excepting the two occupied beds, which he resolved to come back for once their occupants awoke), he’d decided that leaving Mallow unattended was just too risky. He stole upstairs and knocked on Caroline’s door, but she hadn’t returned from her errands, so Dr. Suttler quickly emptied one of the crates scattered around the office, brought it downstairs, and lined it with a blanket to make a little doggie bed.

Mallow, who was making an excellent case for herself as Dog of the Year, stayed content and quiet in her crate while Dr. Suttler did the community washing-up in the safehouse kitchen, laundered sheets in the big office sink, and rolled bandages on the safehouse parlor table. No one gave him, or the crate, a second look—there were plenty of random supplies around the place, no matter how much Dr. Jhandir snapped at everyone to clean up after themselves. 

By the time Dr. Suttler got around to dusting Dr. Jhandir’s parlor (of all the useless, humiliating chores!) the day had been going so well that he didn’t even flinch when he heard someone coming up the stairs.

“Dr. Suttler! Uh, you haven’t seen the doc around, have you?” Andrew O’Rourke asked, a trifle stiffly, from the doorway that he practically filled.

“Dr. Jhandir? No, I haven’t seen him for a few hours,” Dr. Suttler said. _Because I’ve been avoiding him_ , he did not add aloud.

Andrew frowned. “Only, we were supposed to meet for drinks, and it’s not like him to be late for things.” He walked over toward the safehouse door, which took him right past Mallow’s crate. Which was covered, but the corgi started barking through it when she somehow sensed Andrew’s proximity. “Did that crate just—?”

“Wait, Andrew, no!” Dr. Suttler said hurriedly, but it was too late. Andrew took the unsecured top off Mallow’s crate, and she immediately sprung up, putting her forepaws on the lip of the crate and panting cheerfully.

Andrew just looked back over at Dr. Suttler, confused. “What the…”

“I can explain.” Dr. Suttler felt his whole world crumbling around him. Andrew was Dr. Jhandir’s best friend, and while he seemed a decent sort, awful taste in friends notwithstanding, there was no way he’d be willing to keep this secret. Still, Dr. Suttler had to try: “Mallow is my dog. I had to bring her to work today, and I’ve been spending the whole time trying to keep Dr. Jhandir from finding out about her because there’s no chance he’d be all right with this, and he already hates me so much. Is there _anything_ I can do to convince you not to tell him about her?”

“I won’t tell him,” Andrew said—faster than Lord Beck had, Dr. Suttler noticed.

“Are you sure that’s all right? I don’t want to strain your friendship,” Dr. Suttler said, and immediately hated himself for being so damned accommodating when Andrew had thrown him a lifeline.

“It’s fine. I know the doc can be unreasonable about things sometimes.” Andrew bent down to pet Mallow has he spoke, not looking at Dr. Suttler. It sounded like an apology for the way Dr. Suttler was treated as much as for Mallow’s current predicament.

Dr. Suttler could feel tears welling up in his eyes and tried his best to blink them back, though he was sure Andrew could see them. “Thank you, Andrew. You have no idea how much this means to me. I—”

“Andrew, are you up here? I thought we were meeting in the...” Dr. Jhandir interrupted Dr. Suttler with his sudden entrance into the parlor, then trailed off himself when he spotted Mallow. He pointed a trembling finger at the corgi. “What,” he demanded, too loudly, “is _that_?”

“Doc—” Andrew started, but Dr. Suttler cut him off, determined to defend himself for once.

“She’s my dog, doctor.”

“You brought that filthy animal into my infirmary?” Dr. Jhandir’s continued shouting was beginning to draw a crowd into the parlor, including more people coming in from the safehouse than Dr. Suttler would have guessed were in the whole infirmary. Oh, God, was he interrupting some sort of important meeting?

“Mallow has been here all day, as a matter of fact, and she hasn’t caused even a single spot of trouble.” Dr. Suttler refrained from mentioning how many people had helped him keep the corgi secret; one way or another, he was going to get in trouble for this, but there was no sense in dragging the others into it.

“Just because it hasn’t bitten anyone or shredded my upholstery doesn’t mean its presence here is without consequence. Animals track in disease, and I’ll not have the hygiene of my infirmary compromised because you simply _had_ to bring that thing along. It’s no matter, though,” Dr. Jhandir continued, smiling nastily. “I’m certain there’s some rat poison in one of the kitchens.”

The beat of silence that followed was so loud that Dr. Suttler’s ears started to ring. Before he could collect himself enough to plead for Mallow’s life, though, Lord Beck spoke up, pushing through the little crowd until he was standing beside Dr. Suttler.

“Really, An—Dr. Jhandir, that’s hardly necessary. I’m sure Irving would be willing to sterilize anything that Mallow might have contaminated, but she looks like a clean, healthy dog to me.”

Dr. Jhandir sneered. “Oh, and I suppose that next you’ll say that it’s equally acceptable for that huge, mangy monster of yours to have free run of the place as well? Forgive me if I fail to consider your learned opinion.”

“Lord Beck is right, sir,” Caroline said quietly. Unlike Lord Beck, she stayed where she was at the edge of the crowd and she kept her gaze cast downward, but her voice was firm. “Mallow wasn’t any trouble. She stayed in my laboratory for most of the morning, actually. If you want Dr. Suttler to clean up where she’s been, I’d be happy to help.”

“I…expected better of you, Caroline,” Dr. Jhandir said, sounding surprised, not to mention much gentler than he had been with Lord Beck. “But I’m afraid that sometimes one has to put one’s personal feelings aside in the name of public health, and having an animal in the infirmary is simply too unhygienic.”

“Doc.” Andrew laid a hand on Dr. Jhandir’s shoulder, and Dr. Suttler suddenly realized how small and slight Dr. Jhandir actually was; somehow, he’d never noticed before. “C’mon, it sounds like she hasn’t caused any problems, and if she got dirt on any of your things, Dr. Suttler and Caroline are willing to clean up after her. You don’t have to do anything so drastic as all that. ‘Specially if Dr. Suttler agrees not to bring her again.”

Dr. Suttler barely registered the open shock on Dr. Jhandir’s face; he was too busy trying not to collapse in relief. It was one thing for Andrew to promise to keep quiet about Mallow, but quite another for the man to publicly defend her against his (terrifying) best friend.

“Thank you,” Dr. Suttler whispered. Then, louder, he added, “I’ll leave her home from now on, yes.”

After a moment of obvious mental calculation, Dr. Jhandir composed his expression into a scowl and brushed Andrew’s hand away. “Fine,” he ground out. “If all of you are determined to live in filth, who am I to stand in your way? I’m going to draw up a new chore rotation. Every inch of this place needs to be disinfected—and don’t think you’re off the hook for it either, _Thaddeus._ And if anyone here contracts any horrible canine diseases, well, just remember that I told you so.”

As Dr. Jhandir stormed out, Dr. Suttler fell to his knees beside Mallow’s crate and pulled her up into a hug. The crowd was dispersing now that the real drama was over, but Lord Beck, Caroline, and even Andrew stayed behind. Once Dr. Suttler let go of Mallow, she flitted, barking, between the four of them, obviously thrilled with the attention. 

“I know you can’t bring her back here,” Caroline said eventually, reaching out to pet Mallow as the dog scampered past, “but I’d really like to see her again. Could we meet up in a park sometime, perhaps, so I could spend some more time with her? A-and with you, of course, doctor,” she added quickly.

Dr. Suttler smiled, feeling at home in the infirmary for the very first time. “Of course, Caroline. I’d like that very much.”


End file.
